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Still Here. Still Building. Still Growing.
Hey Urban Triage Community! ,
First: thank you. Because of your generosity during The Big Share — matched by the Roots & Wings Foundation — we achieved remarkable fundraising results in a single day. Those resources go directly to the people who need us most. Your belief keeps this work alive.
We also received the 2026 LaCrosse Black Student Leaders Black Excellence Award during Black History Month. The recognition matters less to me than what it signals. Something is being counted, recognized, and witnessed — even in a season that has worked hard to make us invisible.
"In a season designed to make us smaller — we are still here. Still building. Still refusing to shrink."
I want to be direct with you, because you deserve nothing less.
Right here in Dane County, we are watching the social safety net being dismantled — not gradually, but deliberately. Programs that serve Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and immigrant families are being targeted and defunded. Federal funding that has sustained nonprofits like ours — organizations you have relied on for housing support, food access, youth services, and behavioral health — is being cut, delayed, and disrupted. This is not an abstraction.
Second Harvest lost $5.5 million. Boys & Girls Clubs are stretched thin. The Bartillon Shelter opened with a $1.24 million gap. Urban Triage funding has been cut by $3.7 million; we have felt every bit of it — and so have the families we serve.
These cuts are not coincidental. They are coordinated. And more are coming.
Urban Triage has long been the bridge that other institutions rely on. Agencies and systems send their people to us because we do not turn anyone away. We employ those we serve. Our programs are built within programs, rooted in trauma-informed care. We do the work others can't — or won't.
What I want you to know is this: Urban Triage is not going anywhere. I'm slowing down. Our organization is slowing down, and we're rebuilding. More intentional. Rooted in the understanding that an organization can only be as regulated as the nervous system leading it.
Effective April 20th, Urban Triage will transition from a drop-in service model to an appointment-based, funded-service-only model. This shift allows us to manage resources responsibly, maintain compliance, and sustain high-quality support for the families and individuals we serve.
Over the next 3 to 4 months, both downtown offices will close to reduce overhead costs. Services will consolidate at our Direct Service HUB at 2312 S Park St. Administrative staff will shift to a hybrid model using co-working spaces. Public events and resource fairs will be scaled back.
All programs continue through 2026. We are actively expanding into additional markets and restructuring for long-term sustainability. Emergency hotel assistance, client advocacy, system navigation, and crisis intervention remain available — when we are funded to deliver them.
Our agriculture program continues to run without funding because the mission is too important to pause. Our team is working every day to change that.
Which brings me to the most important thing I have to tell you this month.
When federal cuts targeted our agriculture program — the very initiative training Black & vulnerable community members and farmers to grow, process, and bring food and hemp to market — we made a decision. We stopped waiting for permission. We grew something new from the ground— we got to work.
"We are not waiting to be funded. We are growing our own."
On April 20, 2026, Urban Triage launches Less Noise — Wisconsin's first Black-led, community-funded, full-spectrum hemp wellness brand. Every product is grown right here in Wisconsin, independently lab tested, and fully compliant with state and federal hemp regulations.
Every dollar from Less Noise flows directly back into Urban Triage's agriculture programs — Black farmer training, and family wellness. This is not a side project. This is what economic sovereignty looks like when a community refuses to be defunded into silence. Read more below.
"We stopped waiting for systems to restore what was taken. We grew something new from the ground instead."
The work continues. The community remains. And we remain committed to both. Visit our blog and news section on our website to stay up to date on what's happening with Urban Triage.
With gratitude and resolve,
Brandi Grayson — Founder & CEO, Urban Triage, Inc.
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